Ep60 Creating Shared Experience for the SES with Bill Ball

Welcome to Inside: Sales Enablement Episode 60

We’re in the experience economy and Sales Enablement Orchestrators are working to bring together the valuable contributions of multiple departments in their organization to improve the customer experience. How are they doing that? By pulling together people, processes, technology, and information to benefit sellers and address the gaps in the selling eco-system.

Curiosity is the new competitive advantage, as savvy leaders are taking a “how do we figure it out” approach and learn by doing. Forgoing the big-bang efforts for laser beam experience “labs” to figure out what works.

In this episode, we’re joined by Bill Ball, a founding member, and one of the members of the Sales Enablement Board of Directors. As sales enablement society founders and members Scott, Brian, and Bill share their examples of creating an all-digital organization of volunteers through a shared and common experience to elevate the role.

As Bill shares in the podcast; “We’re navigating an evolving profession together. We have to get to know people and to help people, to figure it out together.”

Listen in as the guys share what they’re seeing, and more importantly, what they have learned to help your own organization orchestrate and bring together people through a common and shared experience

SES EXPERIENCE 2020 – Forward Momentum for a New Decade October 26 – 29 Virtual

Join the members of the Sales Enablement society at their annual conference http://ses2020.sesociety.org/

Make sure you join Scott Santucci (SES Founder) in the Founders Room on Wednesday, October 28, 2020 at 4:15pm Eastern.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

Intro 00:02  

Welcome to the inside sales enablement podcast. Where has the profession been? Where is it now? And where is it heading? What does it mean to you, your company, other functions? The market? Find out here. Join the founding father of the sales enablement profession Scott Santucci and Trailblazer Brian Lambert, as they take you behind the scenes of the birth of an industry, the inside sales enablement podcast starts now.

Scott Santucci 00:34 

I’m Scott Santucci.

Brian Lambert 00:36 

I’m Brian Lambert and we are the sales enablement insiders. Our podcast is for sales enablement, leaders looking to elevate their function, expand their sphere of influence, and increase the span of control within their companies. Together, Brian and I have worked on over 100 different kinds of sales enablement, initiatives as analysts, consultants or practitioners. We’ve learned the hard way, what works and maybe what’s most important, but doesn’t. Our focus is on you as sales enablement leaders and orchestrators in that role that you have in your company, you’ve got to develop specific characteristics that we call orchestration. That means blending strategy and tactics together to achieve results to help sales sell and simplify the selling ecosystem. And as usual, we have a centering story, bill, bill, what do you got for us?

Bill Ball 01:29 

Thanks, guys. I want to take us way back to the year of 2016. I know that’s not quite as far as you gentlemen generally travel back in your centering stories, but it’s important.

Brian Lambert 01:45 

It’s important,

Scott Santucci 01:46 

you know why? It’s so it might as well be that Fargo. Right,

Bill Ball 01:50 

right, right. I mean, cuz who can tell at this point anymore? It seems like 1000 years ago is my relationship with you guys go what’s happened this year, and how far the sales name one society has come. So um, the reason I’m going to talk about 2016 is that’s the year all the wheels started to turn in the sales enablement society. Now, I wasn’t involved right at the very beginning. Because I didn’t know Scott and Scott didn’t know me and I didn’t know what sales enablement was. That’s right. I’m saying I didn’t know what sales enablement was in 2016, until I found a LinkedIn group called the sales enablement society. And so I joined it. I was like, that sounds like some of the things that I do. You know, I’m helping grow sales people. I’m helping train sales people, I’m helping them with their messaging. But you know, that that sounds a little bit like what I’m doing. It sounds a lot cooler than trainer. Yeah. Or, you know, that kind of thing, right? Because Because, my, my students or, you know, the, my colleagues aren’t dogs. So, so I can get behind this.

And so I joined the group, you know, and I was like, okay, you know, maybe I’ll get a digest or something, if people actually talk in this thing, because like, back back, then you subscribed to a lot of LinkedIn groups and hope, you know, one out of 15 was good. And within that same week, I got a phone call. And it was Brian. And it was like, Okay, this is weird, because I feel a little stocked, I joined a LinkedIn group. And, and Dude, you’re breaking the fourth wall, like what’s going on right now? And, and he proceeded to vet me, you know, but like, in a really nice and thoughtful way, like, Hey, I see you’re, you’re in DC, and I’m in DC. And that’s where the sales enablement society was, you know, originally had a chapter. And we talked about my role a little bit and he was super complimentary. You know, I taught it and now knowing all the things that Brian’s done, like it was really nice for him to say that, right? Because I was just beginning my journey as well not beginning but like, this is my first role in what anybody would classify as sales enablement. And he was like, so you’re kind of like the Yoda for SDRs and and I thought like, Yoda, I would never say that. But But yes, I have to be sometimes and definitely my age versus the SDRs I’m easily Yoda that way so so so we’ll keep that so so we talked again after that, I was like, Wow, that was really weird at first and then super nice. And like now I’m more curious about this thing. And so we talked again, and he was like, Hey, we’re actually having a meeting. And I found out it was like way out in Leesburg at some Country Club. Yeah, like I was like, do I have banjo to get in

Brian Lambert 04:46 

his city slicker he’s out cuz

Bill Ball 04:49 

Yeah, cuz I’m in Arlington, Virginia and for those on the podcast like Leesburg and DC traffic like that’s a haul from from from where I am and you know, that’s just part of living in a big City. So, so yes, I know, I know. And I know it’s hard Down on the Farm, Scott. So So I went out to the country club. And you know, I didn’t have to have a banjo and I saw Brian and and I saw, I got to meet Scott. And I saw other people who, around that same time, Terry was doing that podcast on sales enablement, which was like, super groundbreaking at the time, and he was interviewing people in the sales, manual society. So I was like, you know, I know a little bit about Scott, I know a little bit about Nicola, Brian, because she talked about all the Van Halen shows that she went to like in the 70s, or the 80s, or whatever that happened. And I was kind of jealous. So I have heard him talk about that with but, you know, so I thought I was gonna have these, like, you know, one off personal discussions, and we got serious really fast in that meeting. So we laid out a few things about business within a business and a lot of the things that we’re trying to establish at that time. But then we had an exercise, and I was like, I have never been to, you know, I’ve been to all kinds of sales meetups and all those kinds of things. I’ve never been to one where we actually had to do an exercise. And I was like, Okay, this is this is for real. And this was the exercise.

So there was a marketing business plan, you know, given with a scope and an amount of time and an ROI. And, and Scott was leading this exercise, and he said, Okay, I’m going to split you up into two groups. So he divided the two groups into one group, which was, you need to make the business case for this, your sales enablement, you need to come up with reasons to support this. And then the second group, you’re the CEO, you need to find reasons to shoot this down. Because part of being in sales enablement, little did I know at that point was selling your initiatives and making a business case your initiatives upstream, even at the CEO level. So to my delight, I worked at a small business at that time, and I reported to the CEO. So to my delight, I got to play the CEO groups, I was in a group with Brian and Rao Gupta and a couple of other folks. And I knew exactly what my boss would say about this. And so when we came back as a group, like we like, wrote on notepads, and we came up with talking points, and we came back as a group and debated, I did not hold back, I totally went CEO, and I rip that plan to shreds. And it was an amazing plan, but I just played the CEO, and I ripped it to shreds, and I could just, you know, Scott was facilitating, but I could also see his face kind of contort a few times when I was when I was kind of going at the plan. And did I know at the end of the meeting, that it was a plan that Scott had submitted. So I felt like a huge ass, but I also felt like, you know, dude, you put that out there, and you gave me permission to take some swings. And this is awesome. And I cannot wait to come back to this thing. That’s awesome.

Brian Lambert 07:59 

Yeah, remember that? there? Yeah. Yeah. So let me ask bill, I always ask asked after our centering story, so what?

Insider Nation 08:08 

So what?

Scott Santucci 08:09 

Well, wait, let me help you out, Bill. So okay. So first of all, who the heck are you? Who’s this person talking? And who’s taken my space for my centering story? That’s like my, my value contribution. That’s what I do. So for those of you who don’t know, Bill ball joining us, Bill ball, it gave us his story about his first experience within the sales enablement society. And now you’re on the board of directors, right?

Bill Ball 08:36 

Yep. So I practice sales enablement. For an IT staffing and managed services firm. I’m in the process of transforming my practice from a traditional learning and development practice, because it’s a traditional business into field enablement practice. And so, so I’m super excited about that. But yes, I have the pleasure and the privilege of being not only a founding member, and a past Board of advisor for the sales enablement society, but now I’m on the board of directors with four other awesome hard working volunteers.

Scott Santucci 09:14 

So the reason that this is this centering story is important in the so what Brian so now, that way they know who the heck this bill guy is in the first place. He just starts talking about getting calls and making fun of us rednecks out and media. And he’s making history again, the first ever centering story. That’s not Scott. That’s right.

Scott Santucci 09:34 

That’s right. But I think the bigger issue is, where is sales enablement as a profession today and how much influence has the sales enabled society had with it? There’s been a huge explosion since 2016. And funding for companies like seismic highspot, etc. A lot of that is because of the visibility in sales and a warrant that was created to make investors feel more comfortable with it. There’s way more research out there. So those businesses are converting some of that research that money that investment money. So high spots, got the sales enablement, sell the name or Pro, because of that traction, you’ve got other conferences now that are, you know, squatting on the sales enablement society, timeframe, but that’s a different issue. All of this has been done and built. So let’s kind of review what’s all been built by volunteers serving and it says Key Point bill, how much money you get every year for your your efforts as being a board member?

Bill Ball 10:36 

I have two answers to that question. One, the overwhelming amount of zero dollars, infinite and, and a lot of pride. And then and then also I pay to go to every single conference, I’ve paid for my travel, and this year won’t be paying for my travel. But I’ve paid for the conference as well as as a board member and as a practitioner.

Scott Santucci 10:58 

So not only are you going out of pocket, so you’re paying for your part, but you’re not getting any money either. And I think that’s really important for you, as our audience to really pay attention to understand what the society is all about. The cells in a one society is driven by volunteers who care about the profession. And the volunteers are people like Bill, who are practitioners who believe in this role. And I think that’s really, really important. Because as you think about all the different things that you could attend, and all the stuff that you could do, having insight of how things really work matters. And you should be participating in the things of where people are putting their money where their mouth is, there’s a lot of other resources out there that are quote unquote, sales enablement, where people aren’t putting their money where their mouth is. But what we’re going to talk about here is the remarkable thing of Orchestration.

So you guys all know that since COVID, we’re shifting our podcast to be much more about Orchestration. As Orchestration really happened, how two volunteers who’ve never worked together, don’t work in the same company aren’t getting paid? How do they put together a conference? Oh, and by the way, even when there is a template for a conference to follow, guess what COVID hits. Now you have to do a virtual conference as well. How does that actually happen? So we’ve we’ve asked bill over here for two reasons. One is to get you motivated, so that you will join the conference. The entity is a nonprofit organization, they need the money. But more importantly, you should be supporting an organization done by your peers. But I think more importantly, to for our listeners of our show, how does this stuff actually really happened? So don’t? Where does it start? Where does it begin from? How do you decide that? What what topics you’re going to cover?

Bill Ball 12:53 

A couple of ways. So so we we think about the theme. And there were a lot of foundational themes, when we all met together for the first time at the end of 2016. In, in Palm Beach. And then there were greater themes in that when we had our actual first conference in Dallas, where we were trying to just build foundations for this thing and talk about what happened, you know, with technology companies in 2008. Scott, you did a presentation on that. Howard, Dr. Howard over talked about the Dust Bowl, and how hiring more salespeople wasn’t the answer. So there was all of this build and momentum of the need for sales enablement, in that first conference. So since we built on that, two conferences after one in Denver, and then one last year in San Antonio, this year, we had originally planned to talk about the forward momentum, meaning a lot of our practitioners are growing up, we talked to our members, that’s how we find out we don’t start with the technology and say this is how you do sales and eight, when we talk to our managers, we see what are our practitioners, we see what’s happening in our chapters. And what a lot of us, a lot of them were telling us was, you know what, I’m starting to expand beyond my army of one, you know, I’m starting to build out my team. What does that look like? What does forward momentum look like for me, and then there’s some people at a at an even greater level that, that that are that are still looking for ways to scale. And you know, there’s conversations of different types of enablement at this point, you know, I don’t want to get into that too much. But But we, we have a huge audience. And so to do something memorable and experiential for them, we have to talk to them.

Scott Santucci 14:43 

Yeah, and I think part of the difficulty, at least from my experience, with regards to society, it’s really hard to share what that experience is to other people. And that’s what that’s what that’s the cause. If you will make makes all this work is it’s not so much you don’t go to the sales enablement society conference. For the speakers, even though the speakers are great, you go there to build the connections that you need, and to be able to have honest conversations with other people so you can do your job better. Was that? Is that what you’re what you’re after bill? So how do we give more insight of what happens behind the closed doors?

Bill Ball 15:29 

It’s, it’s, it’s exactly what I’m after. And that’s something that nobody told me. You know, nobody gets told that. I mean, maybe I’m saying it and you’re saying it now, Scott, but nobody says that. I’m in the sales enablement society. You find that out, you figure that out, you discover it. When I went to our first founding meeting, back in 2016, started to take us back there again, but it was a big year. I got to meet people that I’d heard on podcast before like Daniel West, right. So like, Who’s elevated to a huge role in Australia now? I’m sure mon batcher. Officer. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that’s massive, right? So So Siobhan Satcher, who she you know, a lot of people know shavon. But when I met her guys, she was an army of one. Yeah. Now she is a major Orchestrator Vp at ringcentral. With with lots of successful sales named leaders underneath her.

Scott Santucci 16:27 

So Palm Beach meeting that people will recognize. So Mario was there, right?

Bill Ball 16:33 

Mario was there. Bob Britton was there? Giuliana Stan can pianos there? You me and Brian were there. We had

Brian Lambert 16:44 

to think Who was there? Niccolo Brian

Bill Ball 16:46 

Cole O’Brien was there Raul Gupta was there. A lot of all of our original founding castle there Michael Abadi. It was one who was um, who also just took took a new role. He’s heading up a region, I believe doctors,

Brian Lambert 16:59 

the doctors were there. Peterson,

Scott Santucci 17:02 

Michael avani. That was his first experience. Yes. He’s a board member as well. He was at this he was at meeting the doctors, right. Yeah. So that one of the doctors. So Dr. Dover, a lot of you guys know, actually the sales name was society donated a large sum of money in that first conference to pay his foundation because they were doing the most work. And were offered to host the first conference, then we have been also, Dr. Peterson. Peterson is leading one of the roundtables.

Bill Ball 17:43 

Yeah, it’s so tying that back to what you’re talking about Scott. I don’t just hear Daniel west on a podcast anymore. I reach out to him. You know, my 5050 and call a friend right now is pretty awesome. Um, and and it is 100% of the sales success, do the sales enablement society. And and why that’s important is not just okay, I have awesome connections. It’s because we’re navigating an evolving profession together. And who wants to be Sisyphus and push a rock up a hill by themselves, you know, so but by being a part of these experiences, and it’s one thing to be a member, right, and join and be on our message board and that kind of thing. But by being a part of these experiences, you get to know these people. And if you get to know people, and you interact with them, then you feel comfortable reaching out. And so when I need help when I want to figure something out, it’s not just me in a dark room, you know, I’m reaching out to Daniel, I’m reaching out to my uncle, and I’m reaching out to you guys. And it’s elevated my practice in ways I can’t even describe.

Scott Santucci 18:56 

Yeah, I think there’s a there’s a great point in that in the kinds of things that we do, especially as we get closer and closer to driving alignment and business value across multiple departments. Where are you going to learn how to do that, unless you do it. And you get the chance to practice that by actually he tried to pull things off like these miracles that happen on a day to day basis how the sales name was, society has no budget. There’s no ongoing budget, or at least not when it started. I don’t know what what what things happened today, Bill, but we’re not asking for an audit of your books. And you can be like Trump and not tell us anything about your books and tell us to eff off if you want to. But that the point is, it’s totally transparent. You just have to be curious and engage. It’s also an opportunity where you get to learn by doing and that’s something that a lot of people don’t ever get the opportunity to do. And these are the these are some of the reasons why it’s so important. And that you find a way to get engaged somehow some way, shape or form. It’s not easy to do that, because it’s different.

But these are the kinds of things of why there’s so much momentum and so much energy and why we get, you know, thank you very much bill for all the time and effort that you put into it. To tell us a little bit about how, how we’re going to have this kind of experience. Oh, by the way, you know, who we left out? We left out, Walter. Yes, we did. Why are we leaving out Walter Pollard? So Walter Pollard is one of the people who helped create the idea of a coverage desk. So one of the things that we wanted to do in the first conference is to, for people who couldn’t join, because it’s sold out? Not because not because they were trying to find information for people who weren’t willing to pay. That’s not what we’re looking to do. It’s for because it was sold out. How do we let other people feel like they’re they’re involved? Do we have this idea of a coverage desk where we would cover what’s actually happening, sort of the water cooler conversation? How are we going to take advantage of those kinds of things? I find myself when I go to these conferences, it’s way more valuable not attending the events. It’s the conversations that you have with people, what it How are you going? What’s the idea of the online experience going to be like? And what’s the vision of how you’re going to pull that off, though?

Bill Ball 21:26 

So I want to respond to two things. And hopefully I don’t, that you mentioned, Scott, and hopefully I don’t divert us too much. And you guys, can I know your course correct me if if I do. First off, you can’t talk about the sales enabled society without talking about Walter Pollard. He is possibly the greatest unsung hero of the sales enabled society, to put on these conferences. We not only need support of our members, but we need support of our partners out in the space, a lot of the technology companies and advisory firms that help sales enablement, do what it does, right? So but so Walter navigated a lot of those early relationships with you, Scott and took a lot under his wing to help coordinate our partners and get them engaging with our practitioners in a way that wasn’t so much like, here’s our technology, do you want to buy it right? You don’t get that at a sales enablement society conference, you know, I can’t tell you how many conferences I’ve gone to in my past, where it’s like, you’re watching something, and it looks kind of cool. But at the end of it, it’s like that, that old computer coach commercial where he says, try my product, you know, at the end, that’s not what’s happening. Our partners don’t influence what they what we do. They support what we do. And that’s huge.

So, so Walter was one of the people who negotiated that kind of work. So there’s a safe space for our practitioners to interact, you know, and not feel like, okay, am I going to get sold to or people just want to have a discussion with you. That’s what happens in sales. Now when society competences, people have discussions. So how are we going to do that this year? Yes, we’re going to have the same kind of intentional experience with practitioners where it’s not so much like, here’s sales enablement, or let me describe it to you, or here’s how I want it my business. They’re answering the questions that a lot of us have, in our specific practices around tech stack, or engagement of stakeholders, things that you you guys talk about on your podcast all the time, they’re talking about how did I do that my own organization. So and again, it’s it’s orchestration, right? It’s a mix between that strategic and tactical place. But also, we’re going to have experts like you, Scott, like Shivani batcher. Again, there’s going to be an invite only room. So the reason I’m talking about that is that’s only going to be part of the live experience. And so once you have that option, if you’re Scott Santucci, you’re going to skip some of the practitioner sessions, and you’re going to go right into one of these rooms, and engage around a topic. You know, and and this is also an amazing way to meet people and work with people. You know, the other thing that we’re going to do that’s a little different is, is we have an entirely new platform that we’re gonna allow people to engage on as far as topics as far as channels and all that stuff during the experience.

So, so yes, there’s going to be some keyboard action, you know, as far as that goes, right? But but it’s not, hey, if you liked this, you know, conversation, head over to the chat, it can be a part of this conversation. You know, let this expert navigate this conversation and facilitate this conversation. But come be a part of this conversation and meet the speaker and meet other people in this conversation that are going to help you in your practice.

Scott Santucci 24:41 

Bill, we’re going to create some curiosity. So for insider nation, I have a section. I don’t know it’s called a pot. I think it’s on last Wednesday, on the 28th from 415 to 5pm. And we’re going to use that To have a lot of interaction around orchestration to Brian, why don’t you share some of the conversations that we’re having, and I’m totally putting you on the spot, because it is. It’s not going to come together until probably the night before. And we’re tapping our listeners, by the way, Bill, to help with some of the delivery. So we’ve already put a few people on the hook. But So Brian, give, give, give our listeners some of the things that we’re talking about and thinking about and

Brian Lambert 25:31 

yeah, sure. Yeah, the first thing is, you know, before I explain some of the details as why, why are we talking about this in the first place. And one example that comes to mind is I was talking to a sales enablement leader in a company, and they they actually had a whole operating model to around accounts. And because of COVID, they’re changing the whole thing. And she’s talking about basically this elephant in the room that really nobody knows what they’re doing. And nobody really knows what the answer is. But yet, there’s more meetings, and everybody goes to meetings, and they get off the thing, and everybody’s shooting emails around. But is any any progress being made? And what do you do about that? What do you do about that? How do you bring that stuff up? And how do you engage in a way that moves people forward without being confrontational? Look, there’s a lot of stress, there’s a lot of challenges. There’s a lot of things going on right now. You can’t just go in there guns blazing and tell everybody what the answer is. So what does that mean? Is that called collaboration? Is that called communication? Is it called something else? You know, some would say, well, that’s just leadership. to us. Scott is bringing it up here. And we call it Orchestration. It’s a capability that brings together not only people that process information and technology. And these are the conversations that we’re having. these are these are beyond the concept of design thinking and beyond the concept of collaboration, to look, we have outcomes, we have a goal, how do we achieve that goal? when we when we frame it out, and sales and marketing?

There’s so many different ways to translate what we’re talking about. Justin, how you’re hearing me explain this. You may be like, Oh, yeah, I I understand, and I relate, but I’m not quite sure what to do about it. Or you may think you have the answer. And this This phenomenon is is is playing out over and over again, almost every single conversation from strategic accounts that whether it’s a pipeline where there is no pipeline. The second conversation, hey, we need everybody to work on a new message. Well, sale says they can’t because they’re so busy, and they’re slammed with COVID. Well, that’s interesting. I went in the CRM, and there’s no meetings happening. Tell him to get to the working sessions. Well, working sessions, what do you mean working sessions? We don’t do working sessions, is that a pipeline review? I mean, that’s what’s going on in many of these situations where what you thought you knew at January 1 of this year is completely different than the reality now. So how do you move forward? And that’s those are two examples, Scott?

Scott Santucci 28:09 

Yeah, so one of the things that we’ve developed a bill is this thing called an Orchestration orb? What the heck is that? Brian, please, the orb bill.

Brian Lambert 28:21 

orb will set you free. everybody listening? Or is a it’s a mental model. So in an earlier podcast, we talked about systems thinking. And the the premise that we have is Scott and I have and we talked a lot about it in our podcast is how do we engage the ecosystem around it and make an environment where salespeople can thrive and confront reality, that’s what orchestrators do. And the orb allows us to have conversations to break the mold break the pattern of this is more and more and more activity activity activity, doo doo doo. Well, let’s, let’s put this visual up. And let’s talk about what is the connection between people and information? What information do we need? What about the role of technology here? How is it helping us learn? What about process, the processes that we had six months ago need to be updated? if so how, and it creates a proactive discussion to move people forward. So the orb is literally a sphere with nodes on it. And that’s what we’re going to unpack in the experience we’re going to create on the CMS session is we’re going to bring help to have your help engage you, our listeners and the attendees to figure out what this orb is and how it would might look what it looks like how we might label it, etc.

Scott Santucci 29:44 

So you’ll appreciate this though. You know, Brooks Pat’s, right. Yeah. So guess what, she doesn’t know this. But she’s gonna be delivering some of this, some of this experience with it. I’ll text her brother. Before we put we published this, but what we’re doing is we’re reaching out to other people who are, who are experiencing this. And one of the, one of the big challenges that I think all of us have is if we take a big step back and look at what’s common across all of our businesses, is that that whole commercial experience that customers have with our businesses, sucks, sucks, it’s terrible. And that commercial experience has to get simplified, it has to be made cohesive. So the challenge though, is the only way to make it cohesive is somebody has to be that intermediary between all the different silos inside your organization, and what that messaging looks like in between. And that’s where we see a gigantic opportunity for sales enablement to take that next step. And we that’s what we call orchestration. here’s the rub. The rub is it’s highly experiential. So all of the things that you’ve experienced, working with the society that you find very difficult to communicate, guess what you’ve been waxing on, and waxing off, Miyagi yourself, and be prepared to be able to do this. And these are the things that we’re going to challenge ourselves is how do we make an experience more tangible, when people expect a certain thing, but the thing that’s expected doesn’t work anymore?

Bill Ball 31:24 

I love it. It’s It’s funny, and I’m not sure who came up with the term experience room. Right. But that’s, that’s been happening at our conferences for the past several years now. And it sounds like it’s going to continue with what you guys are doing where people work together to solve a problem. It’s not your action plan of what you’re going to do when you go back to your office, right? That’s those those are things that sound like great ideas and sell them happen. This is something that you guys are actually going to figure out in the moment, because it’s a need for everybody. By the way, I can’t wait to see what this orb looks like. I think I think I need a visual aid on this.

Scott Santucci 32:01 

It looks like an orb. There you go.

Brian Lambert 32:04 

And it’s it’s an Orchestration or so Yeah, come on. A little bit of sizzle. But it’s an orb.

Scott Santucci 32:11 

It’s an orb. There you go. There you go. Think about three dimensional, it’s like a big ball. We’re definitely working on it’s very difficult to, to describe, like, how would you explain what a sneeze is? pretty hard to do. So how do you make things more relatable? Um, well, how would you explain a sneeze if you were an alien and your your species doesn’t sneeze? Right? How do you explain that it’s hard to do. But you can describe it, you can make it relatable. So these are things that we’re looking to do. So anyways, so let’s wrap up for so for insider nation. A key a few things to point out. We Brian and I are very much part of the sales, nameless society, we’re not any different society doesn’t think as any different is that true bill?

Bill Ball 33:04 

Scott, you’re still doing the same thing that you’ve always been doing, which is looking at the past to determine the future, creating frameworks for things, creating vocabulary for things that didn’t exist to help pave the future for sales enablement. I’ve always seen you know, you as as doing that, doing an expert job at that, leading a lot of us in that. And I’ve seen you continue it on your podcast, so so like that nothing’s changed. I’m just happy. Like, I kind of get to talk to you by listening to your podcasts more often.

Scott Santucci 33:37 

Yeah. And so what we’re what we’re looking to do is these kinds of connections. So if you listen to our show, and you wonder how the heck we have all these connections, and you know why we go way back, it’s because we engage in a sales enablement society, if you don’t engage in the sales enablement society, you’re, it’s your, it’s gonna be hard for you to build your connections and the connections are what’s so important. So it’s going to be challenging for all of us to figure out how to pull this off together. in a, in a virtual world, we’re going to do our part. So inside our nation, we’re going to use my space to engage around an orchestration or whatever the heck that is. And I will be challenging for sure on the panel. So you know, I’m glad you picked me but we’re gonna hear some very here’s some some feedback. Bill, what can other people do? What kind of help do you guys need? Where are we How do people get engaged? How do they find out information?

Bill Ball 34:40 

The first thing that they can do is come to the conference. And that’s not a plug like it’s, it’s, as you mentioned, Scott, it’s an experience. So if you want to know what being around other people in the sales enablement society is like, and and establishing those connections, be a part of the conference. And if you are a practice titchener and you’re out of work. One of the cool things that’s happening this year with sales enablement society is yes, we have to charge a fee because we’re nonprofit, you know, and and how else do we bring the content to you guys, right? But But what what some of our partners are doing at the conference is actually sponsoring tickets for practitioners out of work. So when you register for the conference, if you’re out of work, and you don’t have the cash, that’s, that’s an option. When you register, as far as getting involved. Go, look, go to the message board, go to sc society.org. Look up your local chapter, reach out to me, you know, reach out to Scott, and and we’ll plug you in next year, there’s going to be all kinds of amazing work streams to build on what we’ve set up this year, the forward momentum for the new decade, which is still our theme. But the first thing you should do, the best thing that you should do, is come be a part of the conference.

Scott Santucci 35:57 

Amen to that, for sure. So inside our nation, we expect to see you there. We got to meet a lot of you guys. We were given out pens. I don’t. Brian, actually, here’s a challenge. How do we figure out how to give virtual pins? Yeah, work on that. insider?

Brian Lambert 36:15 

Got pins. Still got some? So we got to figure it out. Maybe we’ll get them out of orchestrate sales?

Scott Santucci 36:21 

Well, we got to we got to give people who are in the conference pins that are inside our nation. But how are we going to give physical pins to people who are participating digitally? I don’t know. That’s gonna be trippy will. Any ideas to figure that out? Brian, how does what we talked about relate to being an orchestrator?

Brian Lambert 36:42 

Oh, good question. Oh, man, you guys, you’re interrupting me as I’m registering for the STS conference. I gotta say second. Hopefully you’re all doing that, too. I haven’t registered yet. So I’ll pause my registration. And I’ll do it bill by the time the show’s over. But that’s the first thing how this relates is by engaging with your peers at the conference. When I look at Orchestration, there’s their six attributes of an Orchestrator focusing on mission and goals, driving results, by design, not effort, guiding narrative by confronting reality, prioritizing the right goals at the right moments, and unlocking energy and created by creating momentum. And when I look at the conversation that we’re having, we’re looking at this over the course of many different touch points. And those touch points have all been unique experiences that actually are part of the sales enablement profession and the role itself. And I think that’s the key theme that I’m hearing from Bill and united thread that, that all three of us have had on this, this podcast and since we’ve started this, back in the day, is this idea of what is our mission and goal here as orchestrators. That’s the number one attribute what’s the mission and goal and for the sales enablement society and, and will continues to today with us and all the others that are that have been through this and with us for that long is we’re focusing on elevating the profession, we’re focusing on professionalizing a role. And many of us have any mentioned some names on this podcast have put in their effort, and their contributions have been aligned to that outcome without compensation. And then that’s what, that’s what you that you call a professional contribution. That’s what professionals do, they give back to their profession. They don’t just take, they don’t just expect to be spoon fed doctors put into their profession lawyers put into their profession, and others do too. And so this idea of $195, or whatever for the SPS conference, put that in context of what what does it mean to be a professional in today’s world?

The second thing is this idea of results, they’re driving results by design, not effort, the entire FCS has been built to be an experience. And where else are you going to get the practice that Scott talked about? Building a digital driven workflow, and creating an opportunity for others to engage around the work you’re doing? You know, no virtual setting? That’s right, you know, and that’s the idea here, these are these are these are designed experiences, not where’s my stuff, you know, oh, gee, I don’t get any tchotchkes. So I guess I better not, this is worthless. Like what are we talking about? And I think a lot of what, what, what I was trying to share with my stories, one of them Scott put on the spot was this idea of confronting reality. The reality is a lot of the stuff that we thought was important. Maybe it’s not as important as we think today. You know, is our job. Keys important is, you know, the idea of going physically to an event. How important is that? And can you have that experience digitally or not? And are you even trying? Or are you hunkered down with a kind of a victim mentality. And, you know, there’s there’s plenty of ways to engage. So those are the top three things that I’ve gotten from your conversation here. And I want to thank Bill for for being my friend and being somebody that I can always reach out to. And when I’m a little bit, you know, we all have this, but you know, when things get tough, I like to call bill, He always makes me laugh, and reaching out to him and is also pinging us about our podcast, you know, Hey, what’s up with this? Or I got a question on that. And it keeps us engaged in the reality. So I want to thank Bill for that. And, and I’ll definitely sign up for the conference as well. And I encourage you guys all to do that. And I look forward to seeing you in our discussion about the orchestration or help us figure it out.

Scott Santucci 40:59 

Yeah. And so a couple things. Bill, you mentioned experience AI, you know, that was one of the design points of the whole society. Giuliana had a big role in doing that, that the the experience of onboarding, who hasn’t conference where you get onboard into that, that ever happened before? Have you ever experienced that? Never. Are we still doing something like that with the we are doing the virtual onboarding?

Bill Ball 41:28 

Yes. I mean, the whole, this ties right back to what you and Brian were saying, the whole experience is intentional. It’s not it’s not a conference. I mean, that’s the term that we’re all using. Because it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s easy and to understand, but it’s intentional. It’s perspectives from practitioners things you can use. It’s the points of view from CEOs. We have a CEO panel, we have a CRM speaking. So the people that ask things of sales enablement, you’re not going to get that somewhere else. You know, there’s, there’s a CRM, speaking from Korn ferry, and his one mission is to say, here’s what I’m seeing, you know, this is my ask, how do you get to self reflection? You know, this is this is an easy way to do that. And and then you can plug that right into the brain of what your head of sales or CRM is thinking. And then again, you know, right it’s it’s the rooms with people like Scott and Siobhan. So here’s the thought to make that come together.

Scott Santucci 42:33 

That whole idea the struggle of communicating the experience, the the quote, that pops to my head, there’s a video we did after the first conference, they maybe guys should put out, there’s this great quote from Tanya. Marie. Yeah, so Tanya scholtes, was very instrumental in helping us execute that first conference. And she’s got this quote about where we’re trying to put words bond and experience and all the words fail. And there’s that there’s something really powerful that but if you see the energy behind it, and all the energy that’s in the room, sometimes when we go in thinking I here’s a conference, what’s the agenda bla bla, bla, bla bla, versus what’s the experience that I’m going to get out? How do I get energized from actually talking to peers? How do I actually create a space where I can have an honest conversation and challenge people? I don’t think this what the speaker is saying resonates with me, I’m going to challenge it. And that’s those are the some of the things that are really important is to be able to challenge conventional wisdom, because, frankly, we’re in a completely new world, and we better start doing that or else. We’re gonna let the biases of the past do us in I see your head nodding because we’re doing a video bill but we’re on a podcast, buddy. Yeah, I see. I agree

Bill Ball 43:55 

with you. And I think look, let’s let’s tie it back to Orchestration. Let’s tie it back to what you know, how do you explain this as nice to somebody much less a salesperson in three words or less? Right. And, and, and some of our core audience customer facing roles. You asked me about orchestration in the conference and I went on to describe it because that’s the best way I can do it. It’s intentional, and you have to go You have to not only go but not just wait for the recording you have to go and you have to go interact with people gotta be doing ways to we’re going to be giving people ways to do that beyond just to get talked out by an expert. Excellent.

Scott Santucci 44:34 

insider nation. Brian and I are going to be participating definitely in this conference for sure. Where we have a little we’ve got our own little area carved out for for insider nation also where we’re going to work on Orchestration. While you’re there, engage, engage with people meet somebody that you don’t know. Make sure you go on to the SS sales. S e society oreg learn the principles and follow them lead with you be curious. Have it takes courage it takes courage for bill to reach out. And by the way, when you joined, it was the DC local area sales, sales enablement networking group. How am I going to remember all of that? That was my branding contribution. You people made it the sales enablement society and I yeah, it was a huge mistake. I think it was so much more elegant back then.

Brian Lambert 45:30 

Oh, yeah. Okay. I remember I remember reserving the domain name and like, oh, sec, that’ll work as the society that org should ask Scott. No,

Scott Santucci 45:40 

definitely not.

Brian Lambert 45:41 

It’s gonna get it.

Bill Ball 45:43 

Thank God, it was a sales enablement society. By the time I joined Scott, because if it was the bloody blah, blah, blah, Meetup group, I’d be like, what do they do? Like run, go run and drink beer somewhere? Like, that sounds kind of cool. But am I gonna learn anything? Thank God that it was a sales enablement society, and that it’s still around.

Scott Santucci 46:01 

And with that will, will leave you looking forward to seeing you there. Bill, thank you so much for two things for joining our show. More importantly, for all the work that you do to volunteer, I don’t think anybody realizes how much effort is put in. So there’s a lot of people who complain about, quote, unquote, the board, or any kind of role like that. Remember, these people are giving up their time and paying their own money to do these kinds of things. The way that it works is if you engage it, it helps. And the more with the more curiosity that we create. And the more questions that you ask, the more information gets out. If you put it on them, then it’s hard because everybody’s got that pucker factor about how much information you need to share and what format and who, and it gets back in the old way of just stuff instead of engagement. And instead of experience. So find a way to expect find a way to engage, reach out to Bill, reach out to Brian, find your chapter head. Just get to the conference. Right, Bill? 

Bill Ball 47:04 

Absolutely. Get there. Come join us and engage you guys. Awesome.

Brian Lambert 47:09 

Thanks, guys. See you there.

Outro 47:11 

Thanks for joining us. To Become an insider and amplify your journey. Please make sure you subscribe to our show. If you have an idea of what Scott and Brian can cover in a future podcast, or have a story to share, please email them at engage at orchestrate sales.com You can also connect with them online by going to orchestrate sales.com following them on Twitter or sending them a LinkedIn connection request.